‘Oscar’ for our Christopher Gordon

Ryde Councillor Christopher Gor­don has won the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award for the Best Original Music Score for the Aus­tralian movie La­dies in Black.

The AACTAs are the Australian Academy awards and this year marked the 60th Anniversary of AFI | AACTA – Australia’s longest standing national screen culture and industry development organisation – and the nation’s top achievements from the past year

Christopher is pictured with two of the stars of the film Celia Massin­gham and Alison McGirr at the award presenta­tion.

He was on of 35 category winners announced at an AACTA Awards Industry Luncheon at The Star casino event centre, on Monday, which recognised screen craft excellence across all industry sectors, with the remaining 21 winners announced in a televised event on Wednesday evening.

Bruce Beresford-directed Ladies in Black was released in Australian cinema’s in September.

Set in the summer of 1959, when the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever, the film tells the story of shy schoolgirl, Lisa, who takes a summer job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s, where she meets the ‘ladies in black’, who will change her life forever.

The official trailer for Ladies in Black

TWT readers who learned of Christopher’s stellar achievement on the front page of this week’s edition of The Weekly Times – which you can CLICK HERE to read – would have been disappointed the Ryde Greens councillor was not featured in coverage.

The Weekly Times today requested the footage from Foxtel, which hosted the Awards luncheon, in the hope we can share it with readers on our web site – we’ll keep you posted on that.

The AACTA Award is further recognition of Christopher’s talents in which he has successfully established himself as a niche composer of ceremonial musical accompaniments for numerous major national commemorative and sporting events and also, an Emmy Award-nominated creator of film and television soundracks both here and abroad.

He has been commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (including concertos for bass trombone and horn), Gondwana Voices (including Peace On Earth), Sydney Omega Ensemble, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney International Brass Festival.

He has composed for many of Australia’s major celebrations, including the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup Sydney, as well as the official celebration of the Centenary of Federation of Australia in 2001.

Christopher’s scores for film and television, include credits for Adoration, Mao’s Last Dancer, Daybreakers, Crawl, the EMMY-nominated score for Salem’s Lot, Moby Dick, On the Beach, When Good Ghouls Go Bad and Ward 13.

He also co-composed the score to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. His scores have received wide international acclaim, including an APRA Award in 1999 for the theme song for TV Miniseries, Moby Dick; Best Musical Score in 2009 at AACTAs predecessor, the AFI Awards, for Mao’s Last Dancer.

Christopher has also amassed 16 Australian Screen Music Awards, with a further 10 nominations, with this week’s AACTA gong confirming he remains at the creative peak of his career.

Among his more recent work is a composition entitled Demon’s Lore. another original score for Australian horror movie, Out of the Shadows.

Demon’s Lore, an original score by Christopher Gordon for Australian horror movie, Out of the Shadows.

Despite his creative brilliance, Christopher has proven to been a sensible and pragmatic elected representative on Ryde Council.

In his first term as a councillor, he has already held the Deputy Mayor’s role and surprised many this week, with considered comments at an extraordinary Ryde council meeting to determine a development that revealed a nuanced understanding of planning issues.

That extended to an empathy for the plight of developer Meriton, which had its planning proposal for Macquarie Park – notably located where there was minimal impact on residents in low density areas – refused, amid a storm of misinformation including claims of “overdevelopment”.

It came as election campaigning by the two major parties’ candidates for Ryde at the March 2019 state election ramped up, with both determined to be seen as anti-development champions of the community.